e>vAVi. 


Bowdoin  Gollege 
iPetin 


Number  lOgi^  October,  1920 


Medical  School  Centennial 

1820-1920 


Brunswick,  Maine 


Entered  as  second-class  matter,  June  28,  1907,  at  Brunswick,  Maine 
under  Act  of  Congress  of  July  16,  1894 


PUBLISHED    MONTHtY    BY    THE    COLLEGE 


Addresses 


at  the 


Centennial   Exercises 


of   the 


Bowdoin   Medical  School 

June  23,  1920 


Brunswick,  Maine 
1920 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2012  with  funding  from 

University  of  Illinois  Urbana-Champaign 


http://archive.org/details/addressesatcenteOObowd 


The  Bowdoin   Medical  School 

by 

Kenneth  Charles  Morton  Sills 

President  of  the  College 


The  maintenance  of  the  Bowdoin  Medical  School 
for  one  hundred  years  has  been  one  of  the  great  ser- 
vices which  the  College  has  performed  for  the  State 
of  Maine;  and  it  is  appropriate  in  many  ways  that 
the  centennial  of  the  Medical  School  and  of  the  State 
should  coincide.  You  are  shortly  to  hear  the  history 
of  the  School  from  one  far  better  informed  than  I; 
and  I  shall  only  detain  you  for  a  short  time  with  some 
very  general  considerations.  It  would  indeed  be 
pleasant  to  dwell  on  some  of  the  early  anecdotes  of 
the  School ;  or  to  go  with  you  to  some  country  district 
and  see  a  Bowdoin  Dr.  Lavender  upon  his  rounds;  or 
to  visit  the  cities  of  our  State  and  enumerate  the  phy- 
sicians of  distinction  and  of  influence  who  have  been 
graduates  of  the  School.  It  is,  I  know,  customary  at 
centennials  to  speak  glowingly  of  those  who  have  been 
leaders  and  in  places  of  authority;  and  today  is 
crowded  with  memories  of  men  like  President  Allen 
and  Dr.  Nathan  Smith,  the  founders  of  the  School,. 
Parker  Cleaveland,  Dr.  Theodore  H.  Jewett,  Dr. 
Stephen  H.  Weeks,  Dr.  Israel  T.  Dana,  the  dean  and 
beloved  physician  Dr.  Alfred  Mitchell — and  ''one  whom 
living  we  salute"  Dr.  Frederic  H.  Gerrish.  But  we 
must  think  also  of  those  who  labored  and  served  in. 
quiet  places  and  in  inconspicious  but  faithful  ways.. 


4  Bowdoin  Medical  School 

The  School  has  graduated  2,121  physicians;  and  has 
taught  more  than  1,450  others  who  obtained  here  a 
large  part  of  their  medical  training.  These  facts  I 
mention  so  that  we  shall  not  forget  the  service  the 
School  has  rendered. 

But  today  we  ought  not  simply  to  look  backwards. 
If  the  School  is  to  survive  and  to  hold  its  place  of  use- 
fulness in  the  future,  it  must  have  far  more  than  it 
has  now,  the  support,  financial  as  well  as  sympathetic, 
of  the  people  of  Maine.  No  profession  marches  for- 
ward with  quicker  steps  than  does  medicine.  What 
was  competent  instruction  in  one  generation  becomes 
old-fashioned  in  the  next.  Facilities  and  equipment 
that  seemed  adequate  and  generous  in  1890  are  out  of 
date  in  1920.  The  evolution  of  medical  education  is 
clearly  shown  in  the  history  of  this  School.  At  first 
the  course  was  only  a  few  weeks,  just  a  series  of 
lectures  given  in  one  year;  then  it  was  extended  to 
cover  two  years;  then  to  three;  and  finally  to  four. 
Likewise  the  requirements  for  admission  increased 
imtil  now  no  one  can  enter  the  School  without  two 
years  of  previous  college  training.  The  School  has 
also  reflected  the  advance  in  medical  science  by  its 
physical  surroundings.  The  School  had  temporary 
quarters  for  forty-two  years  in  Massachusetts  Hall. 
In  1862  it  moved  into  more  adequate  quarters  in 
Adams  Hall.  Then  later  the  two  upper  classes  went 
to  Portland;  the  building  there  was  erected  and  the 
Mason  Dispensary  added.  It  is  a  far  cry  from  the 
annual  lectures  delivered  in  Massachusetts  Hall  in 
1820  to  the  facilities  offered  today. 

And  yet  so  great  have  been  the  advances  in  medical 
education  that  the  facilities  we  have  today  are  still 


Centennial  Addresses  5 

inadequate.  This  is,  I  think,  an  appropriate  occasion 
to  inform  the  people  of  Maine  of  the  needs  of  the 
School.  We  ought  to  have  an  additional  endowment 
of  at  least  $500,000  so  that  the  School  may  have 
several  teachers  who  can  give  their  full  time  to  their 
teaching  and  to  research.  The  suggestion  of  the 
Council  on  Medical  Education  is  that  every  medical 
school  should  have  at  least  eight  full  time  professors 
and  four  full  time  instructors.  When  our  staff  is 
strengthened  in  this  way  there  will  be  need  of  new 
laboratories,  and  laboratories  are  expensive  to  equip 
and  to  maintain.  The  relations  of  the  School  to  the 
various  hospitals  in  Portland  should  be  still  more 
close;  and  the  work  at  the  Mason  Dispensary  which 
has  been  admirably  carried  on  of  late  should  be  still 
further  developed.  In  fact  all  along  the  line  efforts 
should  be  made  to  keep  the  School  fully  abreast  of 
the  times.    If  we  stand  still,  we  perish. 

No  doubt  this  looks  like  a  formidable  programme, 
but  it  is  at  least  a  programme  worthy  of  the  traditions 
of  the  School  and  of  Bowdoin  College.  So  long  as  the 
Bowdoin  Medical  School  lives,  we  are  bound  to  main- 
tain high  standards  and  it  is  our  duty  to  plan  at  least 
for  the  next  generation.  The  people  of  the  State  of 
Maine  who  one  hundred  years  ago  through  the  Legis- 
lature entrusted  the  Medical  School  to  the  "control, 
superintendence,  and  direction  of  the  President  and 
Trustees  of  Bowdoin  College"  ought  to  know  that  the 
School  properly  supported  is  ready  and  able  to  con- 
tinue its  good  work  and  to  progress ;  but  that  without 
generous  financial  assistance  it  is  badly  hampered  and 
may  not  even  survive.  As  in  the  College,  money  is 
necessary  for  instruction  and  for  equipment.    Medical 


6  Bowdoin  Medical  School 

education  is  highly  technical  and  scientific,  and  con- 
sequently very  costly.  But  the  investment  will  bring 
in  large  returns  if  the  School  is  conducted  on  sound 
lines  and  in  a  progressive  spirit.  And  therefore  on 
this  centennial  celebration  I  call  on  all  who  are  in- 
terested in  the  cause  of  medicine  in  Maine  to  ponder 
seriously  these  questions : 

Do  we  need  a  medical  school  in  the  State? 

If  the  answer  is  affirmative,  ought  we  not  to  put 
this  medical  school  on  a  firm  basis  so  that  those  who 
teach  and  those  who  study  here  may  be  assured  of 
adequate  facilities,  kept  in  touch  with  all  the  move- 
ments of  progressive  medical  education,  trained  so 
thoroughly  and  so  well  that  graduates  of  the  School 
in  the  future  as  in  the  past  may  go  forth  to  their 
great  life  work  ready  to  take  their  places  unafraid 
by  the  side  of  their  brothers  from  the  larger  schools? 

If  the  funds  for  that  are  forthcoming,  the  College 
will  gladly  continue  its  trust;  but  we  shall  not  main- 
tain a  school  that  is  not  first  rate. 

So  much  for  the  future.  But  I  cannot  conclude 
these  remarks  without  bringing  to  the  School  and  its 
friends  here  the  hearty  congratulations  of  the  College 
on  a  hundred  years  of  work  well  done;  and  the  thanks 
of  the  College  to  those  devoted  men  who  have  served 
on  the  Medical  Faculty. 


The  Bowdoin   Medical  School 

by 

Addison  Sanford  Thayer 

Dean  of  the  School 


In  Morituri  Sahitamus,  first  spoken  in  this  church 
fifty  years  after  the  graduation  of  his  class  from  Bow- 
doin College,  Longfellow  pays  loving  tribute  to  the 
men  by  whom  he  had  been  taught : — 

"They  are  no  longer  here;  they  are  all  gone 
Into  the  land  of  shadows, — all  save  one. 
Honor  and  reverence,  and  the  good  repute 
That  follows  faithful  service  as  its  fruit, 
Be  unto  him,  whom  living  we  salute." 

Professor  Packard,  of  the  class  of  1816,  one  of  six 
brothers,  all  of  whom  were  students  at  Bowdoin, 
whose  wife  was  a  da;ughter  of  President  Appleton  of 
the  College  and  a  sister  of  the  wife  of  President  Frank- 
lin Pierce ;  of  whose  five  sons  four  were  graduates  of 
Bowdoin,  three  were  college  professors,  two  were 
teachers  in  our  medical  school,  and  one  a  practitioner 
of  medicine  in  the  nearest  city;  Professor  Packard, 
who  carried  on  the  enterprise  undertaken  by  Nehemiah 
Cleaveland,  and  gave  us  a  History  of  Bowdoin  Col- 
lege;— Professor  Packard  it  was,  for  more  than  sixty 
years,  who  courteously  received,  from  many  a  return- 
ing graduate,  a  salutation  less  immortally  articulate 
than  that  of  the  beloved  poet. 


8  Bowdoin  Medical  School 

When  Longfellow  came  back  to  Brunswick  to  greet 
his  classmates  and  the  world,  he  visited  the  grave  of 
Parker  Cleaveland. 

In  somewhat  the  sense  that  Plymouth  Rock  stands 
as  the  accepted  token  of  civic  and  religious  adventure, 
or  that  Mount  Vernon  remains  the  shrine  of  pilgrims 
whose  thoughts  go  back  to  the  beginnings  of  disen- 
thralled America,  so  Massachusetts  Hall  may  fairly 
be  taken  as  a  fulcrum  around  which  revolve  affection- 
ate memories  of  Bowdoin  men;  and  perhaps  there 
exists  no  material  thing  that  more  effectively  radiates 
the  beauty  of  Bowdoin  spirit  than  that  autograph 
sonnet  which  hangs  on  one  of  the  walls  of  Massachu- 
setts Hall, — the  sonnet  to  Parker  Cleaveland,  written 
by  Longfellow  in  1875. 

We  are  trying  today  to  think  the  thoughts  of  one 
hundred  years  ago.  Can  we  do  better  than  let  the 
poet  guide? 

"Among  the  many  lives  that  I  have  known, 
None  I  remember  more  serene  and  sweet, 
More  rounded  in  itself  and  more  complete, 
Than  his,  who  lies  beneath  this  funeral  stone. 

These  pines,  that  murmur  in  low  monotone. 
These  walks  frequented  by  scholastic  feet. 
Were  all  his  world;  but  in  this  calm  retreat 
For  him  the  Teacher's  chair  became  a  throne. 

With  fond  affection  memory  loves  to  dwell 
On  the  old  days,  when  his  example  made 
A  pastime  of  the  toil  of  tongue  and  pen; 

And  now,  amid  the  groves  he  loved  so  well 

That  naught  could  lure  him  from  their  grateful  shade. 
He  sleeps,  but  wakes  elsewhere,  for  God  hath  said.  Amen!" 


Centennial  Addresses  9 

A  grand-daughter  of  Parker  Cleaveland,  through 
the  kind  intervention  of  Mr.  John  Chapman,  has  re- 
cently presented  to  the  College  a  packet  of  38  folded 
manuscripts,  as  uniform  in  appearance  as  a  row  of 
Philadelphia  houses,  all  in  the  handwriting  of  Parker 
Cleaveland, — copies  of  annual  reports  from  the  Medi- 
cal Faculty  to  the  Boards  of  Bowdoin  College,  begin- 
ning with  a  report  for  1820-21  and  ending  with  a 
report  for  1856. 

In  the  vaults  of  the  College  Library  are  two  precious 
volumes  of  records  of  the  Faculty  of  the  Bowdoin 
Medical  School.  From  September,  1820,  to  July  1858, 
these  records,  also,  are  all  in  the  clear  handwriting 
of  Parker  Cleaveland.  He  qualifies  as  follows :  ''Oct. 
25,  1820.  Voted:  that  a  secretary  be  chosen.  On  ex- 
amining the  ballots,  it  appears  that  P.  Cleaveland  is 
chosen." 

From  the  pages  of  this  record  shines  out,  now  and 
then,  the  religious  spirit  of  our  fathers.  After  the 
first-  session  of  the  Medical  School,  rules  were  adopted. 
I  quote  two. 

''Every  member  of  this  School  is  required  habitually 
to  attend  public  worship,  and  to  be  governed  by  such 
laws  of  Bowdoin  College  as  relate  to  the  observance 
of  the  Sabbath." 

"All  profane  language  and  intemperance,  the  play- 
ing of  cards  and  every  form  of  gambling,  and  the  fre- 
quenting of  taverns  for  the  purpose  of  drinking,  are 
strictly  prohibited.  Any  medical  student  who  shall 
violate  this  or  the  preceding  regulation  [the  one  re- 
lating to  the  Sabbath],  or  shall  be  concerned  with  a 
college  student  in  any  irregularity  and  disorder,  shall 
be  liable  to  be  expelled." 


10  Bowdoin  Medical  School 

The  record  shows  also  that,  in  rare  instances,  a 
student  was  made  to  discover  that  the  letter  of  these 
laws  w^as  not  dependably  dead: — 

''Whereas  it  is  known  to  this  Faculty  that  a  mem- 
1ber  of  the  medical  class  was,  at  the  commencement  of 
ihe  present  course  of  lectures  concerned  in  scenes  of 
great  disorder  and  intemperance  in  a  public  house, 
concerning  which  he  was  conversed  with  by  some  of 
the  Professors,  and  whereas  the  said  [student]  was,  on 
the  night  preceding  the  annual  Fast  Day,  found  in  the 
•college  yard  at  a  late  hour,  with  his  face  disguised  by 
some  black  substance,  and  under  circumstances  lead- 
ing to  a  strong  suspicion  that  he  was  connected  with 
some  college  students  in  certain  irregularities  at- 
tempted on  that  night, — therefore.  Voted,  that  said 
[student]  cannot  be  admitted  to  an  examination  for 
the  degree  of  M.D.  the  present  year."    And  he  wasn^t. 

These  sporadic  lapses  into  ''great  intemperance  at 
a  tavern"  may  have  inspired  in  fellow  students  a  cer- 
tain type  of  research;  for  the  records  show  that,  in 
those  days,  favorite  subjects  for  graduation-theses 
were  "De  Delirio  Trementi"  and  "De  Mania  a  Potu." 
On  the  other  hand,  as  early  as  1848,  a  candidate  for 
M.D.  at  Bowdoin  presented  a  thesis  with  the  blameless 
title  "De  Aqua." 

In  1820,  a  considerable  proportion  of  the  people  in 
Northern  New  England  who  received  medical  attend- 
ance when  sick,  received  it  from  some  doctor  who  was 
doctor  by  courtesy  and  not  by  diploma. 

Many  of  these  farmer-doctors  or  parson-doctors, 
who  would  be  rated  as  quacks  today,  were  wise  and 
kindly  and  useful  men.     Some  of  them  had  attended 


Centennial  Addresses  11 

a  course  or  two  of  medical  lectures,  perhaps  at  Phila- 
delphia or  at  Boston ;  but  for  the  most  part  they  had 
learned  their  trade  by  "studying  with  a  doctor," — 
which  frequently  meant  keeping  the  doctor's  saddle- 
bags filled  with  favorite  medicines  and  currying  the 
doctor's  horses.  Nathan  Smith  himself,  founder  of  the 
medical  schools  at  Dartmouth  and  at  Bowdoin,  and 
chief  ornament  of  the  new  medical  school  at  Yale,  had 
practised  medicine  for  several  years  with  no  diploma. 
He  saw  the  limitations  of  haphazard  knowledge,  and  he 
builded  something  better. 

At  the  time  when  the  people  of  the  District  of 
Maine  were  awakening  to  a  realization  of  the  fact 
that  they  had  become  sovereigns  of  a  state,  Bowdoin 
College,  in  turn,  was  adjusting  herself  to  the  dispen- 
sation of  a  young  and  energetic  president.  In  May, 
1820,  there  arrived  in  Brunswick  a  vehicle  of  un- 
precedented splendor, — a  carriage  drawn  by  two 
horses,  bringing  to  the  college  town  the  new  president, 
William  Allen,  and  his  opulent  wife.  Madam  Allen 
had  been  born  the  only  child  of  the  venerated  second 
president  of  Dartmouth,  John  Wheelock.  To  the  privi- 
lege of  close  relations  with  college  presidents,  was 
added  the  gift  of  personal  charm.  The  period  from 
1820  to  1828,  the  year  of  Madam  Allen's  death,  was 
an  era  of  prosperity  for  Bowdoin  College. 

At  Dartniouth  College,  President  Allen  had  known 
the  great  surgeon  and  medical  teacher,  Nathan  Smith. 
Doctor  Smith's  first  enterprise,  the  founding  of  the 
Dartmouth  Medical  School,  had  been  made  possible 
by  the  friendly  aid  of  Madam  Allen's  father.  President 
Wheelock.  Far  more  promising  were  conditions  in 
Maine, — to  wit,  a  manifest  need  for  trained  doctors,  a 


12  Bowdoin  Medical  School 

new  State  and  a  new  legislature,  friendly,  by  reason 
of  changed  relations,  toward  Bowdoin  College ;  and,  in 
addition,  a  new  president  blessed  by  the  willing  co- 
operation of  a  professor  of  medicine  having  prestige 
and  great  experience. 

On  the  twenty-seventh  day  of  June,  1820,  the  legis- 
lature of  the  newly-created  State  of  Maine,  passed  an 
act  entitled  "An  Act  to  Establish  a  Medical  School  in 
This  State.  There  shall  be  established  under  the  con- 
trol, superintendence,  and  direction  of  the  President 
and  Trustees  and  Overseers  of  Bowdoin  College,  three 
distinct  courses  of  lectures,  embracing  Anatomy  and 
Surgery,  the  Theory  and  Practice  of  Medicine,  and 
Chemistry  and  Materia  Medica." 

Early  in  the  following  year,  the  lectures  were  de- 
livered by  Nathan  Smith,  Parker  Cleaveland,  and  John 
Doane  Wells;  and,  at  the  close  of  the  course,  the  de- 
gree of  Doctor  of  Medicine  was  conferred  upon  two 
students.  In  1822,  sixteen  students  received  diplomas. 
In  1829,  the  number  who  graduated  was  forty-six. 
Without  interruption,  for  a  full  century  the  Bowdoin 
Medical  School  has  performed  its  functions;  and  for 
the  one-hundred  years  the  average  number  of  students 
who  have  received  degrees  at  graduation,  has  been  a 
fraction  larger  than  twenty-one. 

Nathan  Smith  was  in  his  sixtieth  year  when  he 
began  his  work  in  the  Bowdoin  Medical  School.  The 
success  of  this  undertaking  is  ascribed  in  considerable 
part  to  the  zeal  of  a  young  man  of  twenty-two,  whom 
Dr.  Smith  selected  as  his  prosector.  John  Doane 
Wells  had  graduated  from  the  academic  and  medical 
departments  of  Harvard,  and  had  served  as  an  appren- 


Centennial  Addresses  13 

tice  to  Dr.  George  C.  Shattuck.  Brilliant  work,  as 
assistant  to  Dr.  Smith  at  Bowdoin,  brought  prompt 
promotion.  In  order  to  qualify  as  Lecturer  on 
Anatomy,  Dr.  Wells  spent,  in  Europe,  the  greater  part 
of  the  two  following  years  and  the  greater  part  of 
$2,500,  appropriated  by  the  new  State  of  Maine.  He 
purchased  equipment  for  the  museum  and  books  for 
the  library.  Says  Dr.  Bardeen,  of  the  University  of 
Wisconsin : — 'The  great  success  as  a  lecturer  of  John 
Doane  Wells  served  to  establish  a  high  reputation  for 
the  school  at  Brunswick.  He  became  the  most  popular 
lecturer  on  Anatomy  in  New  England."  After  eight 
years,  tuberculosis  brought  this  notable  service  to  a 
close.  The  old  records  of  Parker  Cleaveland  fairly 
glow  with  words  of  appreciation.  Of  Doctor  Wells, 
his  colleagues  say : — ''Such  a  brilliant  and  rapid  career 
in  his  profession,  we  think,  is  unexampled  in  this 
country.  As  his  life  was  unstained  with  vices,  so  were 
his  professional  instructions  uncontaminated  by  er- 
roneous philosophy."  Lest  this  should  prejudice 
posterity  too  much,  they  add: — "To  his  successors  he 
has  left  the  splendor  of  his  example."  Samuel  Long- 
fellow, in  his  biography,  speaks  of  the  useful  letters 
which  Henry  Longfellow  took  to  Paris, — introductions 
from  John  Doane  Wells. 

Two  other  names  shine  out  brilliantly  in  the  cen- 
tury's roll  of  teachers.  Fordyce  Barker  was  a  gradu- 
ate of  both  the  academic  and  the  medical  departments 
of  Bowdoin.  He  was  made  Doctor  of  Laws,  not  only 
by  his  own  college,  but  also  by  the  universities  of 
Columbia,  Glasgow,  Edinburgh,  and  Bologna.  There 
are  still  living  not  a  few  former  Bowdoin  students, — 
medical  and  even  non-medical  and  unbidden, — who  re- 


14  Bowdoin  Medical  School 

call  with  enthusiasm  the  vivid  lectures  and  the  fasci- 
nating surgical  clinics  of  William  Warren  Greene. 

We  who  are  here  today  have  witnessed  in  part  the 
service, — in  each  case  efficiently  prolonged  for  more 
than  forty  years, — of  two  teachers,  justly  and  highly 
honored, — Alfred  Mitchell;  and  Frederic  Henry  Ger- 
rish,  "whom  living  we  salute."  We  are  glad  that 
recognition  has  come  from  associations  and  institu- 
tions of  learning  to  the  editor  of  Gerrish's  Anatomy; 
that  some  of  his  prophetic  visions  have  become  enacted 
into  history.  The  School  of  his  love  and  his  labor  re- 
joices to  do  him  honor. 

Doctor  Mitchell  used  to  say  that,  in  the  earlier  days, 
his  chair  at  Bowdoin  was  a  three-legged  stool.  Nathan 
Smith,  to  quote  from  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes,  occupied, 
not  a  chair,  but  a  whole  settee.  The  down-sittings  and 
up-risings  of  the  ancient  medical  lecturer  have  be- 
come relatively  unimportant,  in  the  advance  of  labora- 
tory and  bedside  teaching;  and  pedagogical  gyrations 
are  now  less  premeditated.  But,  in  more  ways  than 
one,  the  minister's  traditional  barrel  of  sermons  once 
had  its  analogue  in  a  ''course"  of  medical  lectures. 
Not  only  successive  classes  in  a  single  school,  but  also 
congregations  in  widely  separated  schools,  had  to 
listen  and  take  notes.  John  Delamater  of  Ohio,  who 
lectured  in  the  Bowdoin  Medical  School  during  three 
separate  periods,  lectured  also  in  nine  different  medi- 
cal schools  on  seven  different  subjects.  Of  the  pro- 
fessors who  have  taught  at  Bowdoin,  Corydon  L.  Ford 
lectured  acceptably  in  six  different  schools;  Edmund 
R.  Peaslee  in  seven;  Alonzo  B.  Palmer  in  four; 
Fordyce  Barker  in  three;  William  Warren  Greene  in 


Centennial  Addresses  15 

four;  William  Sweetser  in  four;   Charles  A.  Lee  in 
eight. 

Into  the  land  of  shadows  also  have  gone  memories 
of  medical  teachers  of  local  service  and  repute.  Across 
the  river,  in  Topsham,  lived  and  labored  James  Mc- 
Keen,  son  of  the  first  President  of  Bowdoin ;  in  Free- 
port,  Ebenezer  Wells.  Amos  Nourse  practised  states- 
manship in  the  United  States  Senate,  and  obstetrics  in 
Bath,  Maine.  After  him  came  Theodore  H.  Jewett, 
whose  service  as  lecturer  was  brief,  but  whose  life  as 
a  country  doctor  in  Maine  furnished  a  background  for 
the  charming  stories  of  his  daughter,  an  honorary 
graduate  of  Bowdoin.  Descendents  of  Isaac  Lincoln 
and  of  John  Dunlap  Lincoln  are  still  neighbors  and 
friends  of  Bowdoin.  In  our  School,  the  name  Hunt 
stands  for  clear-cut,  incisive  teaching  from  father, 
brother,  and  son.  Stephen  Holmes  Weeks  and  Frank- 
lin Clement  Robinson  are  names  not  soon  forgotten. 
W.  C.  Robinson,  Conant,  Childs,  Amory,  King,  Mussey, 
Cobb,  Dwight,  Carmichael,  Robey,  Ring,  and  Wilder 
are  shadowy  only  as  all  names  become  shadowy.  In 
Doctor  Israel  Dana,  New  England  piety  and  Gallic 
politesse  harmoniously  blended. 

The  mantle  of  Parker  Cleaveland,  as  Professor  of 
Chemistry  and  Secretary  of  the  Medical  Faculty,  fell 
upon  the  shoulders  of  Paul  A.  Chadbourne,  afterwards 
President  of  Williams  College.  To  Professor  Chad- 
bourne  we  are  indebted  in  large  measure  for  the  plan- 
ning and  construction  of  Adams  Hall,  in  1862.  Up 
to  that  time,  Massachusetts  Hall  had  been  the  home 
of  the  School.  Later,  there  was  need  for  many  habita- 
tions. Chemistry,  histology,  and  embryology  over- 
flowed into  the  Searles  Science  Building.     With  the 


16  Bowdoin  Medical  School 

new  century  of  the  Christian  era  came  a  vital  change. 
Since  1900,  instruction  in  the  last  two  years  of  the 
lengthened  curriculum  has  been  given  in  Portland. 
Clinical  teaching  had  become  a  necessity. 

For  laboratory  and  didactic  use,  Bowdoin  College 
came  into  possession  of  a  new  building  together  with 
land  for  future  expansion  proximate  to  the  hospitals 
of  Bramhall  Hill.  Amid  the  dwellings  of  the  poor  of 
Portland,  generous  friends  have  erected  and  given  to 
the  College  a  substantial  dispensary.  Federal,  state, 
municipal,  religious,  and  private  institutions  have 
opened  their  doors  to  help  in  the  training  of  future 
doctors.  The  City  of  Portland,  Maine,  has  a  splendid 
future;  above  the  grade  of  high  school,  her  only  edu- 
cational enterprise  is  a  half-interest  in  the  Bowdoin 
Medical  School. 

Excepting  the  temporarily  useful  Portland  School 
for  Medical  Instruction,  and  the  worse-than-useless 
Druidic  University  and  its  dubious  appanage,  our 
School  has  been  the  only  medical  school  in  Maine,  and 
was  often  called  The  Medical  School  of  Maine.  Almost 
to  the  beginning  of  the  present  century,  all  American 
medical  schools  were  commercial.  To  escape  this 
stigma,  university  affiliations  have  been  made  or 
strengthened.  President  Hyde  strengthened  ours,  and 
the  governing  boards  began  to  govern.  Following  the 
example  of  James  Bowdoin  Winthrop,  we  have  kept 
to  the  name  Bowdoin, — a  highly  valued  inheritance. 

It  is  only  in  recent  years  that  material  inheritances 
and  benefactions  have  come  to  schools  of  medicine. 
Commercial  medical  schools,  of  the  type  which  is  now 
disappearing,  neither  deserved  nor  received  endow- 
ment.   The  generous  gift  of  Mrs.  Garcelon,  bestowed 


Centennial  Addresses  17 

jointly  upon  the  academic  and  the  medical  depart- 
ments of  the  College,  in  memory  of  husband  and 
brother,  both  graduates  of  the  Bowdoin  Medical 
School,  came  at  a  time  when  the  need  was  great.  The 
Hasty  bequest,  prompted  by  interest  in  the  struggles 
of  students,  will  presently  yield  returns.  Other  gifts 
are  coming. 

We  have  reviewed  the  story  of  our  habitations  and 
our  name;  we  have  lingered  perhaps  too  long  and 
lovingly  over  record,  tradition,  and  memory  of  teachers 
who  are  gone.  What  of  the  more  than  three  thousand 
taught, — those  of  us  who  have  escaped  expulsion  for 
Sabbath-breaking  or  intemperance?  We  who  are  now 
to  be  classed  as  ''old  grads,"  have  need  to  be  modest 
and  have  motive  to  be  kind  toward  the  young  men 
who  are  graduating  now.  We  heard  lectures;  they 
are  taught  to  see  and  hear  and  feel  and  think.  These 
are  days  of  individualism  and  of  democracy, — thank 
God! 

The  reports  that  have  been  coming  to  us  concerning 
the  quality  of  service  in  the  world  war  rendered  by 
graduates  of  the  Bowdoin  Medical  School,  the  suc- 
cessful careers  which  are  apparently  assured  among 
those  for  whom  we  have  vouched,  and  the  loyal  words 
that  reach  us  from  young  alumni  at  just  the  present 
time,  might  tend  to  make  us  dangerously  proud. 

A  few  weeks  ago,  the  Federation  of  State  Examin- 
ing Boards  published  its  annual  report,  showing  that, 
in  six  different  States,  twenty-five  of  our  graduates 
were  examined  for  license  to  practise,  with  no  failures. 
A  few  days  ago,  we  made  the  welcome  discovery  that 
each  of  the  twenty  members  of  our  entering  class, 
at  the  close  of  his  first  year,  has  satisfied  by  examina- 


18  Bowdoin  Medical  School 

tion  the  requirements  of  each  one  of  his, — we  be- 
lieve,—  not  too  lenient  instructors.  Neither  our  school 
nor  any  other  school  may  point  to  a  past  nor  hope  for 
a  future  of  perfection ;  but  we  may  properly  be  cheered 
by  the  knowledge  that  our  graduates  and  our  freshmen 
have  joined  in  celebrating  our  Centennial  year  by 
records  that  are  clean. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS-URBANA 


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